Lance Armstrong won’t be barred from Tour de France

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On the website for the French national anti-doping agency AFLD, there is a three-paragraph statement (it’s in French, those darn French people issuing statements in French on their French website!) saying that it has closed the investigation of ‘Showergate’ and that Lance Armstrong will suffer no penalties, such as being suspended from the Tour de France in July.

Earlier this month, Armstrong made public a dispute he was having with the AFLD over a 20-minute period when he took a shower and was out of sight of an AFLD doping control tester while Armstrong was doing a training ride at a house he rented in the South of France. After the AFLD announced it was making a formal investigation into the testing incident, Armstrong released a video in which he said he thought the ultimate result of the investigation would be that he would be banned from the Tour de France, a race he has won a record seven times.

Friday via Twitter, Armstrong said ‘case closed, no penalty, all samples clean. Onward.’

There is still the matter of his broken collarbone to be dealt with. Armstrong has yet to say whether he will be able to ride in the Giro d’Italia, which begins May 9.

-- Diane Pucin